


without you, i am lost in darkness

by ourdarkspirits



Category: Willow (1988)
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourdarkspirits/pseuds/ourdarkspirits
Summary: It's late at night and Madmartigan has an unhappy infant on his hands and plenty to think about.
Relationships: Madmartigan/Sorsha
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	without you, i am lost in darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Angie13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angie13/gifts).



It turns out that raising a baby in a castle is a lot different than trying to keep a baby alive while escaping Bavmorda’s soldiers. Still, Madmartigan finds that he misses all the inputs from Willow and the brownies. He hadn’t appreciated it much when he was trying to save all their lives, but when it’s the middle of the night and Elora Danan won’t stop crying? He finds he wouldn’t mind some advice.

He’s tried the rocking thing and the shushing thing, and she doesn’t appear to be hungry, so what is a man supposed to do? Sorsha is still dead asleep in the bedroom he’s taken to sharing with her and Madmartigan can’t deny he’s envious. Still, he wouldn’t wake her for the world. 

Not so long ago, he hated her, shocked and appalled at the words that escaped him under the influence of the Brownies’ love spell. _I dwell in darkness without her._ Now, he’s here, raising the savior of the world with her. He shakes his head, and returns his attention to the wailing baby in his arms. He has no idea what to do. 

He thinks again about Sorsha in the other room, wondering if she would have any better luck as he attempts to comfort Elora Danan, but the thought isn’t enough to change his mind. Not after the day she’s had, cleaning up the castle and attempting to create a new and brighter world. Tir Asleen is still broken, but they haven’t been working for very long. 

It turns out that it doesn’t matter that Madmartigan had no intention of waking Sorsha up. The sound of a door creaking draws his attention and he thinks of his sword as he whips his head around. Sorsha is standing in the doorway that connects the room they share to Elora Danan’s nursery. 

_You are my sun, my moon, my starlit sky._

Sorsha pads silently to him, and wraps her arms around him. He’s still getting used to tenderness from her.

“Trouble sleeping?” she asks. 

She could be talking to him or Elora Danan, but the babe won’t answer, so he’ll answer for both of them. “Yes.”

“You should have woken me,” she chides, cheek pressed into his shoulder.

He looks down at her and says, “Not for all the world.”

She comes around so she’s fully in front of him, and gently lifts Elora Danan from his arms. She’s still crying. Once Elora is fully settled in Sorsha’s arms, she gives him a softly chiding look. 

“After everything, you weren’t going to wake me to help you?”

“I may not have been in the council rooms, but I know what you’ve been trying to do,” Madmartigan replies, unable to tear his eyes from Sorsha.

_I stand helpless against you._

“The only reason you weren’t in the council rooms is because you were in the streets, cleaning up,” Sorsha reminds him. 

Madmartigan has no words. He just watches as Sorsha turns from side to side, a slight bounce in the movement. Elora Danan’s crying slowly transitions into hiccups. Finally, she is sleeping again. He wonders why he couldn’t calm her the way Sorsha has. After all, he’s the one with more experience with the baby. 

She seems to read his thoughts. “Do you miss it?”

“What? Being chased by you and your mother’s goons?” he asks and it is meant to be teasing but he sees pain in her eyes before she glances down, focusing on the baby in her arms. “It was a challenge, keeping Elora and Willow alive, and escaping you. It was simpler, though.” He’s quiet a moment. 

“I wouldn’t trade it.”

He gently lifts her chin so she’s looking at him. “I wouldn’t trade any of it. And there’s nowhere I would rather be than right here.”

“Sometimes I wonder how you can say that,” Sorsha tells him, and he can see the desire to return her attention to Elora Danan in her eyes, but she doesn’t. “And you joke about how often I tried to kill you.”

“You never succeeded,” he says.

“Not for lack of trying,” Sorsha reminds him. 

Elora snuffles in Sorsha’s arms and Madmartigan glances down at her, then back up at Sorsha. “You’re going to wake the baby.”

She rolls her eyes at him and resumes her gentle rocking. It’s better than the guilt playing behind her eyes just a moment ago. They both continue to stand there, knowing that Elora will awake again the moment she’s back in the crib. There’s nothing for it but to hold her. They lapse into silence.

“You should go back to sleep,” Sorsha says, watching Madmartigan carefully as he yawns.

“Not a chance,” he murmurs.

He shifts around so he’s behind her and wraps his arms around her waist. He feels her sinking into him and it feels like home. He lets his head rest on Sorsha’s shoulder, watching Elora sleep and he can’t resist the urge to press a kiss to Sorsha’s cheek. A contented sigh escapes her. 

“You know what I was actually thinking about when I was letting you sleep?” he asks her.

“What?”

“I was thinking, as irritating as Willow and those Brownies could be, I could use some advice. I was desperate enough to not care who it came from,” he answers her.

“And,” she adds, “you liked them.”

“Not true,” he protests. “Do you know how many times they nearly got me killed?”

“Still,” she says. 

“Yeah,” he agrees. 

He can hear the smile in her voice when she tells him again, “You should have woken me.”

“Yes, you said that,” he reminds her.

“And it’s as true now as it was the first time,” she says. He presses another kiss against her cheek because he can, because he wants to, because he’s happy.

This is so much better than before, he thinks as he continues to hold Sorsha. He would take all of the council rooms and all of the clean up for these moments with Sorsha and Elora. He would rather the light teasing of two people comfortable with each other than fighting for his life against her. It may not have been true the first time he said it, but now he believes fully that without Sorsha, he dwells in darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this is something like what you wanted to see and that you liked it.


End file.
